32 APPENDIX. 



salmon will need to be informed. The instinct by which these fish 

 are impelled at a certain season of the year to make their way from 

 the sea for the purpose of depositing their spawn, the early breeding 

 fish ascending to the higher parts of the stream, the later fish in suc- 

 cession sowing the lower portions with their seed, so that in the 

 natural state of things the whole course of a river so far as it affords 

 suitable spawning ground, becomes stocked with the ova, is one of 

 the most beautiful arrangements of nature, but it is effectually 

 thwarted by these obstructive contrivances of man. Meantime the 

 spawning beds in the upper parts of the stream are left unstocked, 

 and the proprietors and inhabitants above are robbed of their due 

 share of what should be the common property. 



We could scarcely express in too strong terms our conviction 

 that the existence of these obstructions in the rivers, unprovided 

 with any means for enabling the fish to get up to spawn, is a cause 

 fully adequate, even if no other existed, to account for the gradual 

 disappearance of the fish, and that if effectual means be not taken to 

 obviate this evil the gradual extinction of the breed of salmon in the 

 rivers thus circumstanced must in no long time be anticipated. 



A reference to the old and fundamental principles of the statutes 

 relating to fisheries will show how decidedly the law of England frcm 

 a time anterior to the oldest of these erections has set itself against 

 any attempt to create fishing monopolies by obstructing the free run 

 of salmon throughout the rivers, and how it strove, in spite of inces- 

 sant attempts to defeat its injunctions, to give effect to the natural 

 law of distribution, by which the occupants from source to sea are 

 entitled to their fair share of the produce of the waters. 



It clearly appears, therefore, that from very early times down to 

 the present reign, it has been the constant aim of the Legislature, 

 however thwarted by the negligence or cupidity of individuals, to 

 insure a free passage to the salmon ascending and descending the 

 rivers in obedience to their natural instinct, and to remove all artifi- 

 cial obstructions to their so doing. But, besides these statutory 

 prohibitions, it is clearly laid down by the best authorities that the 

 erection of weirs in a public river so as to injure and obstruct the 

 passage of fish is a public nuisance at common law, and that no 

 length of time will legitimate the continuance of such an obstruction. 



It remains for us to specify the measures which, in our opinion, 

 are needed to remedy the evils now prevailing, and to restore the 

 fisheries to that state of productiveness which their natural capabili- 

 ties admit of. Some of those remedies are indeed obvious, and with 

 regard to most of them there is not much difficulty in suggesting the 

 steps which ought to be taken, provided the practical difficulties 

 which may arise in adopting them can be overcome. We trust that 

 the impression of the existing evils, and of the obligation of re- 

 medying them, may be so strong as to indue a vigorous effort on the 

 part of the Legislature to carry through, in the interest of the public, 

 those statutory measures on which the well-being, and indeed the 

 existence of the salmon fisheries of England and Wales depend. 



